10 Apps To Improve Your Instagram Experience On Android

Instagram has been around for a while now and have become one of the world most popular photo-sharing app on every platform it’s been released to. But just like many apps, it has its quirks and little annoyances that make you wish there was a better alternative out there somewhere.

In this post, we are going to help you get the most out of Instagram with the use of Android apps that can help patch up the holes in the Instagram ecosystem. From accommodating Instagram’s fixation with square photos to doing chat right on Instagram, these are the 10 best apps to improve your Instagram experience on Android devices.

Instagram loves squares. If you ever want to post a picture up to instagram, you better make sure all four sides to your photo are the same length. Cropping is a must, and can be a pain. But if you don’t want to sacrifice bits and pieces of your images, try #Square app.

Use #Square to open your camera photos and it will automatically adjust it into a square, by adding bars on top or at the bottom of your photo. This bar can be customized to the color of your choice. You can also choose to save your edited photo in full JPEG or PNG size before uploading it straight to Instagram.

Bored with the filters you have on Instagram? Try VSCO Cam® to edit your photos into something that exudes a little bit more professionalism. Adjust your photo’s exposure, contrast, brightness, temperature and plenty others to make your photo look outstanding.

There is a before and after option to tell the difference between your original photos and one that you have edited using the app. Despite popular belief, users can undo changes from the app – open the image from the internal gallery again to undo some or all edits.

Instagram Direct lets you share photos and videos with up to 15 people privately within a group. It however is not a messenger in that you need to share a picture, and invite followers before chatting can start. Try InstaMessage instead.

Anyone who has the same app running, will automatically be your friends and you can start chatting immediately. If they are not on InstaMessage yet, you can send them an invite from your Friends tab to download the app. If you want to meet you friends, the Explore option lets you find and chat with random strangers.

If you are a prolific hashtagger then you know that there are popular hashtags and not so popular ones. The selections are a dime a dozen and your photo may be lost in the grand scheme of things because you used a less-popular hashtag.

With the HashTags app, you can copy hashtags related to your photo by choosing the category it falls into then paste it in your photo/video descriptions. You can also create your own set of hashtags so that you only need to copy it from the app next time.

In this age of notification and alerts, Instagram doesn’t have a push notification alert sound for new Likes and Comments from followers. Rather than wait for this feature to take flight, try IgNo. If the sound is not enough, choose to have it vibrate as well.

Your friends tag you in a picture on Instagram but there is no way for you to download it. Install Xposed Framework. It comes with modules that allows you to integrate this very feature in the official Instagram app. You can download the Xposed module here.

Once you have the module installed, enable and reboot your device; you can see the download option if you tap on the additional options button. The download works for any photos and videos that you can access. All of it can be accessed in your Android gallery.

Having problems figuring out who followed you and if you have followed them back? By using TrackGram you can get an overview of your new followers, who have unfollowed you, who are not following you back and who you’re not following back, all in one page.

There is a refresh button where you can sync the app and your current followers/following list for you to get the correct data. You can also just swipe a profile picture in your list to follow them quickly.

Lost track of where you took that photo of that delicious spaghetti? While you may have the image on your Instagram (admit it, you take pictures of food), there isn’t a proper date or location data attached to the photo. The solution: InstaPlace. It will tag your photo with a place and the date.

InstaPlace will stamp your photo with a few categories of skins that you can choose from. Each category contains skins that will allow you to edit the text to input whatever text you wish, together with a date and automatic location finder.

On top of InstaPlace, there is also InstaWeather which gives the weather conditions of where you are when the photo was taken. Seeing how hot or cold the surrounding temperature is adds another dimension to an otherwise regular photo of you walking down a sandy beach.

Some of us are bored with Instagram, period. The constant cropping, poor filters, no download features, no support for multiple user accounts, limited sharing options etc makes you want to move on to a better version of Instagram, something like Padgram.

This alternative app to access Instagram on Android comes with all the features above and plenty more for you to explore. If you are a tablet user who want landscape support, you got it. It uses a stacking layout which makes it easy for users to navigate through the app.